Tuesday

Sep 10, 2019 at 12:01 AMSep 10, 2019 at 7:15 AM

Central Ohio is projected to have the nation's strongest job market this fall, driven by the region's logistics and warehouse industries, according to a quarterly survey by the Manpower employment agency.

The survey, released Tuesday, shows 32% of employers in central Ohio say they will hire this fall while 1% plan to cut jobs in the final three months of the year. Of the rest, 66% say they aren't planning any changes while 1% say they don't know.

The 31-percentage-point spread between hiring and firing is more than twice the 13-point spread from the same period in 2018 and the largest gap among the 100 largest U.S. metro areas included in the survey.

"Traditionally, we have strong third and fourth quarters in central Ohio because of the retail and logistics businesses hubbed here," said Heath Boucher, Manpower's Great Lakes regional director. "That's why you see these strong numbers."

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Richmond, Virginia, had the second-best results with a 29-point difference between hiring and firing.

In Ohio, Akron and Cleveland posted the best results after Columbus with a 20-point spread between hiring and firing.

For the state, 22% of employers say they plan to add jobs this fall while 4% say they will cut jobs.

While the logistics industry leads the way, hiring in central Ohio is expected to be strong in most sectors including construction, manufacturing, professional and business services, private education and health care, leisure and hospitality, and government. Hiring is expected to be unchanged in finance, according to the survey, which is based on interviews with 11,500 U.S. employers.

No sectors should be cutting jobs.

"It's a job seeker's market," Boucher said.

Skilled manufacturing jobs are especially in demand now, he said.

"Anything from machine operators, manufacturing technicians, lathe operators — those skilled trades are a really hot market right now," he said. "If I was to give advice for people thinking long term it would be that skilled trades are going to be king the next five or 10 years — lathes, pipeline work, welding, machine work, those are in high, high demand."

Dispatch reporter Jim Weiker contributed to this story.

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams

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